“Ian Easton, a fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, agrees that the U.S. is intensifying its information warfare because China is posing a growing challenge to the U.S. and other democracies in this regard. Photo/From the Project 2049 Institute website
Military analysts in the Asia-Pacific region say Washington has recently increased the intensity of the U.S. military’s information warfare in the region, a move that could trigger an escalation of the information war between Beijing and Washington. U.S. military experts, on the other hand, argue that the intensification of the information war was triggered by China’s actions and that the U.S. military is only responding to the PLA’s growing expansion in the field.
A report in the South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, was picked up this week by media in several countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The paper quoted Chinese and Australian military analysts as saying that the deployment of a dedicated U.S. information warfare force in the Indo-Pacific region has escalated the information war between Washington and Beijing.
In fact, as early as late March, news broke that the U.S. Special Operations Command had set up a dedicated force in the Pacific to work with allies in the region to thwart the Chinese Communist military’s information warfare.
Why is the U.S. military strengthening its information warfare forces?
The Army Times, an independent newspaper not affiliated with the U.S. military, reported March 25 that General Richard Clarke, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told a congressional hearing that the information warfare task force is prepared to work with like-minded partners in the region to suppress the rumors and propaganda being spread by China .
The senior U.S. military official said the information warfare task force in the Indo-Pacific region will focus primarily on information and influence operations in the Pacific theater in response to the growing capabilities of the Chinese military in those areas.
Timothy Heath, a senior researcher on defense issues at RAND, a leading U.S. think tank, told VOA that the U.S. military’s effort could spur China to put more effort into propaganda and the dissemination of disinformation. However, the U.S. is also doing so because the Chinese government has been increasing its activities in these areas in recent years.
“Therefore, it would be inaccurate to say that this U.S. response will ‘escalate’ the information war; it is already getting hotter, and it is largely triggered by China’s actions in this area,” He Tianmu said.
According to He Tianmu, the U.S. military developed this task force because it recognizes that China has invested significant resources in disinformation and propaganda. Such a task force is intended to help counter China’s walk of disinformation and to promote a more accurate understanding of developments by the military.”
Ian Easton, a researcher at the Project 2049 Institute, a research organization based in the Washington suburbs, agrees. He agrees that the U.S. is intensifying its information warfare because China is posing a growing challenge to the United States and other democracies in this regard.
Beijing has been conducting some intense political warfare campaigns, particularly against Taiwan,” Easton told Voice of America. Now Washington is starting to respond. But the challenge for the United States and other democracies is enormous.”
According to Yee, Beijing’s recent coercive actions against the Taiwan Strait, East China Sea and South China Sea regions have not only unnerved allies in the region, but also caught the United States off guard. There is no doubt that the U.S. military wants to better understand, and develop ways to counter, this threat.
How does information warfare differ from traditional warfare?
Over the past decade, China’s rapid economic growth has made it the world’s second largest economy after the United States; along with its economic strength, Beijing’s influence is growing in many areas, including military, diplomatic, and public opinion.
Washington is uneasy about Beijing’s increasingly aggressive momentum, and beginning in the era of former President Trump, the United States increasingly views China as an all-encompassing adversary. Phil Davidson, a senior U.S. military general and former commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, said not long ago that China is using conventional and social media to undermine the United States and other democracies and to divide the power of Washington and its Asian allies.
How does so-called modern information warfare differ from traditional warfare, and what are its characteristics?
A former U.S. Defense Department official, who requested anonymity, said the military’s special operations have always included information warfare as well as wartime psychological warfare. The formation of such dedicated forces does not necessarily imply new capabilities, but is likely a reorganization of existing units and personnel under a new, more streamlined, or mission-centric chain of command.
The former U.S. official, who is familiar with the workings of China’s military, said that the PLA and the Communist Party’s propaganda culture are the real pioneers of “information warfare,” if you will. The PLA’s “three wars” doctrine (public opinion warfare, psychological warfare and legal warfare) includes propaganda and information warfare.
“So it’s hardly a new concept for the U.S. military, nor is it an upgrade, but more of a belated response,” he said.
He Tianmu told VOA that information warfare differs from traditional warfare in that its main goal is to shape perceptions and consciousness, rather than kill enemy soldiers. It will become an integral part of Washington’s peacetime competition with Beijing.
“The primary means of this new military campaign will be cyberspace, electronic media, and other forms of open communication and means of communication,” He Tianmu said.
Information warfare is not new, according to Eitham, and all serious and professional militaries in the world use it to some degree. The Mongols first used it when they occupied China and much of Eurasia in the early 13th century, and it worked well.
Modern information warfare involves infiltration, intelligence gathering, covert operations, psychological warfare, propaganda and counter-propaganda, Yee said. The PLA calls it political warfare, and it is very good at using it. “Now the U.S. and its allies need to understand what the Chinese military is doing and how to defend against them.”
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